Meditations on the merits of the foolish

[S@tanicoaldo]

So I have been thinking a lot the past couple of days because I'm on vacation and with a lot of free time.

Anyway I have always been a big fan of Hegel ideas (Not his writing tough can we all agree he makes things way too complicated?) Anyway I really like his idea that we can always learn with people who think differently from us, the people we think are wrong or have an absurd point of view can teach us a lot since they have a point of view that is completely different from our perspective.

Anyway I'm also a big fan of Rick and Morty, I normally don't consider myself a "fan" of many things, sure I like many medias but I never identify as a "fan" most of the time(Unless it's gay pornor philosophy), but for some reason that show just really clicked with me, I don't know why but I really enjoyed all the jokes and references.

Since I'm on vacation I didn't watch a lot of tv or surfed a lot on the net, I didn't catch up to the whole Szechuan Sauce fiasco until a friend sent me this video:


https://youtu.be/-GC5rAX0xHg

The moment I saw this video I faced despair, how come such a good show attract such pathetic and despicable human beings as fans? How could I be fan of the same thing as these people???

How come humanity has degenerated to such state? Is this why if aliens were real they would not come visit us? Are we so cringy worthy? So bellow? So pathetic to their eyes?

And then it stroke me, wait Hegel said everyone from the simplest to the wisest can teach us something, he must be wrong, surly nothing can be learned from such pathetic excuse of a human being, so spoiled and oblivious to reality, to the social conventions and manners.

Anyway fast forward to yesterday I meet a friend from my childhood at a café I like to go, we had a lot of fun and started to hang out, there is a very cool play and we decided to go there together, after that we hang out and talked a lot about life.

We went to the same Catholic school and used to be friends, she was the shy one I was the weird one.

The point is that while I was a big rebel in my teens she always conformed to what her traditional family wanted, to the point where she keep doing that all the way to her adult life, and now she feels really sad and unfulfilled because of that(Heck she's still a virgin).

And then I started to think, she is a respectful and successful business woman, anyone who sees her may think her life is perfect and yet she's deeply sad, mostly because she worries about what other people will think of her all the time.

Now look at the guy from the video, he doesn’t care about what other people think about him or how they see him, he is not suffering, if anything he seems be deeply energetic and happy(If it wasn’t for the lack of his sauce).

If Sartre said that hell is other people, a person who has transcended the fear of inadequacy and can act as they truly are instead of using social masks... Aren't they the wisest among us?

[anjxed]

I think that guy on the video is really not a good example of someone that is truly what he is. It is obviously a stunt. A random guy just happens to film the video at the start of another dude being crazy? heck no its a stunt

[Zurvan]

Besides, what's your point? Having no shame is a good thing? :smallconfused:

Sure, we may suffer because of inadequacy, but if we didn't have these "social masks" trust me our lives would be a lost worst.

Heck I think the fact people are carrying less about what others think is the main problem we are facing in our society today. That's why racists are feeling comfortable saying their racist ´points of view.

[Knaight]

The moment I saw this video I faced despair, how come such a good show attract such pathetic and despicable human beings as fans? How could I be fan of the same thing as these people???

Putting aside the low bar being used for despicable here (the person in question is being annoying; I prefer to save that for people doing real harm) and assuming as true for now the implicit notion that you're just better than people here despite there not really being any reason to do so leaves another assumption - that any work that appeals to some sort of selective group only appeals to that selective group.

That assumption is terrible, across the board, almost regardless of selection procedures. There's the assumption that only true fans will enjoy things when there's almost always a broad appeal. There's the assumption that a work which has complexities that can be enjoyed by those familiar with the style only has those complexities, whereas they are almost always part of a broader work. Shakespeare's works had plenty of subtle allegory, displayed extreme technical skill in writing with beautiful cadence in strict poetic forms, and demonstrated gift for etymology. They also have a lot of well executed low brow humor.

Or take the other two things you listed as fandoms, gay porn and philosophy. I guarantee you that porn of all sorts is also liked by people you'd despise, and as far as philosophy goes it's a field that's legendary for harboring both a few philosophers who are staggeringly bad at thinking and a wide fanbase who love the field but clearly don't understand it.